Thanksgiving is fast approaching, seven more days. "Thanks"giving. I've watched on facebook as people give thanks for various things...a great idea. There are so many things I am thankful for: my list is big. And...it's funny what a person can become thankful for. Maybe not initially, but over time.
I was a little girl when I moved to the state of Idaho. Idaho is my home and always will be. I wasn't born here, my parents moved while I was in grade school. We came from Oregon.
When my parents came to Idaho, we moved into a 1964 double-wide trailer. My dad worked at a lumber mill and our home was on the plant (employee housing). Our home was next to the power plant (a little noisy)...but it since enabled me to tune out a lot (maybe that's gift?).
Our cozy little trailer came complete with trailer house paneling, and pea-green 1" shag carpet. The previous owner had also been a "fly-tier" and had gifted my bedroom with the occasional fish hook in the carpet (great on bare feet). Not really. We had a fireplace at one end of the trailer and an original 1964 propane furnace (I am also thankful for carbon monoxide detectors). lol To the outside world (or that of Adams Co, ID) we fit in. We weren't poor, but neither were we rich. We were happy.
I remember hosting sleep overs with my friends in our little trailer. I remember holidays in our trailer, birthdays, summers, hunting seasons, the first time a boy came to meet my parents (yes it was Tim) and the day I left. That 1964 double wide was my home, and I loved it.
We had a trailer just like everyone else... Though a few families in town had stick built homes (more employee housing). Very few people in my childhood had nice homes (by today's standards). We were all mill or logger's kids. Looking back on my childhood, I see poverty in the area I grew up. Of course I didn't see it then. It was just life and I loved my childhood there. I have many memories I treasure.
Our little trailer wasn't new. The carpet was...well, old. The walls had seen a few years. I guess our trailer made me appreciate and to be okay with things, that happiness wasn't found in the "latest and greatest". Maybe that's where my love for simplicity comes from. I am thankful too for the noisy mill that lulled us to sleep every night. I have so many things to praise God for: my husband, my children, my faith. But I am also so thankful for parents who decided to raise their daughter in a double wide trailer.
